Police and Social Media: The Need for Presence and the Challenges This Poses

Abstract

This article argues the importance, the need, and the essentiality of the police having a social media presence. As social media is a new and unquestionable reality in the area of communication between individuals and organisations, this article concludes that the police need to modernise and use these tools to communicate with the public quickly and effectively. This article investigates what kind of presence the police should have on social media and the challenges the police face in delivering a social media presence. The methodology used for this investigation is a wide range of articles on the subject (secondary data analysis), that are focused on the experience of police institutions in the English-speaking world, predominantly in the United Kingdom. Based on this study, suggestions for future use of social media were provided.